crescendo
Americannoun
-
crescendos,
plural
-
crescendi
plural
-
Music.
-
a gradual, steady increase in loudness or force.
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a musical passage characterized by such an increase.
-
the performance of a crescendo passage.
The crescendo by the violins is too abrupt.
- Antonyms:
- diminuendo
-
-
a steady increase in force or intensity.
The rain fell in a crescendo on the rooftops.
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the climactic point or moment in such an increase; peak.
The authorities finally took action when public outrage reached a crescendo.
adjective
verb (used without object)
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crescendoes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
crescendoed,
past participle, past
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crescendoing
present participle
noun
-
music
-
cresc. a gradual increase in loudness or the musical direction or symbol indicating this
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( as modifier )
a crescendo passage
-
-
a gradual increase in loudness or intensity
the rising crescendo of a song
-
a peak of noise or intensity
the cheers reached a crescendo
verb
adverb
Discover More
The term is sometimes used figuratively to indicate rising intensity in general: “As the days went on, there was a crescendo of angry letters about my speech.” Crescendo is also sometimes misused to indicate a peak of intensity, as in, “The angry letters about my speech hit a crescendo on Wednesday.”
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
crescendosimple
-
crescendoessimple
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have crescendoedperfect
-
has crescendoedperfect
-
am crescendoingprogressive
-
are crescendoingprogressive
-
is crescendoingprogressive
-
have been crescendoingperfect progressive
-
has been crescendoingperfect progressive
Past
-
crescendoedsimple
-
had crescendoedperfect
-
was crescendoingprogressive
-
were crescendoingprogressive
-
had been crescendoingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of crescendo
1770–80; < Italian: literally, growing < Latin crēscendum, gerund of crēscere to grow; see crescent
Explanation
In a crescendo, the music is getting louder. There's often a crescendo in a large group of talking people, too. This word comes from classical music, where it's very important how loudly the instruments play. If a tuba is crescendoing at the wrong time, then a quiet piano part might not be heard at all. The crescendo is important in all kinds of music, because volume — how loud something is — is one of the main features of music. If you are whispering and gradually raise your voice and then end up shouting, that's a crescendo as well.
Vocabulary lists containing crescendo
"Bonne Annee," Vocabulary from the personal essay
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National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 2
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"The First Day of School," Vocabulary from the short story
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
You read that right: Despite a chorus of criticism over the last few years, which in recent weeks has reached a crescendo, the 60/40 portfolio is more than holding its own this year.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026
Linda Noskova wins the women’s championship, and provides the emotional crescendo of the tournament.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
He also interviewed the leading cast of Star Wars, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill, at the crescendo of the sci-fi franchise's popularity in the 70s.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
Yet Daniel Pemberton’s opening theme music is a rousing crescendo of stadium rock synthesizers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026
Sanjeev noted that the symphony, now in its third movement, had reached a crescendo, for it pulsed with the telltale clashing of cymbals.
From "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri
“No other tenor did that. And just multiply that a thousand times. It’s crescendi, the decrescendi, all the lovely musical things. He’s just sharp that way, probably the best.”
From Washington Times ● Nov. 24, 2018
As to the poets who made it into Dear World, there are predictable highs, plateaux and crescendi.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 12, 2013
Thus, in the coloratura passages of Mozart's arias, I have always sought to gain expressiveness by crescendi, choice of significant points for breathing, and breaking off of phrases.
From How to Sing [Meine Gesangskunst] by Richard Aldrich
The suggestion of orchestral relationships is contained in the massiveness of the harmonic texture, and in the cumulative effect of the climaxes and crescendi.
From Edward MacDowell by Lawrence Gilman
This did not prevent Rossini from continuing to write crescendi, nor from being satirised and caricatured as "Signor Crescendo," when, some ten years afterwards, he went to Paris.
From The Great Musicians: Rossini and His School by Henry Sutherland Edwards
At least until Hans Zimmer’s music hits one of its glorious crescendos, at which point the cat will leap off the couch.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
The song blends delicate piano with impressive vocal crescendos, which Goodrem -- a songwriter, musician, film star and a coach on The Voice Australia -- has brought to perfection.
From Barron's ● May 15, 2026
As I approach the O’Hare exit on I-294, Dr. Becky says, “More than anything, your kid needs you to become a sturdy pilot during their emotional turbulence,” and everything both crescendos and collapses.
From Slate ● May 10, 2026
It’s a film so flush with ambition that it rarely crescendos; it can afford to chop sequences, songs, even genres, down to a string of snippets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2025
The music crescendos and so does her voice.
From "Dumplin'" by Julie Murphy
Zardoya’s yearning for a love lost crescendoes, and is most devastating, in the piano ballad “Back to You”; but it seems as though even her darkest, most melancholic moments are touched by the fae.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 16, 2025
As Bannon walks through dilapidated neighborhoods in slo-mo, the cyclical music crescendoes, and “American Dharma” develops a searing, operatic tone complimented by the recurring image of a burning flag.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2018
TAOYUAN, Taiwan — As the batter steps to the plate, the clamor crescendoes, a rhyming, thumping chant, often tailored to his name.
From New York Times ● Aug. 5, 2018
As the crew struggles to replace it, the storm crescendoes, plucking 's anchor from the seabed twice before it can be secured again.
From Nature ● Sep. 4, 2013
As the conversation, playing with the theme of war, spread itself in spasmodic blurs about the room, bursting in little crescendoes of conviction, pronouncements, suddenly serious and inviolable truths, Dorn found himself listening excitedly.
From Erik Dorn by Ben Hecht
In a 4-3 extra-innings loss to the New York Mets on Monday, a night that started with frustration — then crescendoed with a late-game rally — ultimately ended in a familiar fizzle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2025
As “Turn the Lights Back On” crescendoed, the crowd sang along earnestly.
From Seattle Times ● May 25, 2024
The roars crescendoed when Gauff was introduced before play began.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 5, 2023
As NRP donations increased in the U.S., debate emerged in spurts and crescendoed this spring.
From Science Magazine ● May 11, 2023
As the song crescendoed, a row of daisies poked up from the dirt and unfurled toward her hands.
From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs
Vampire is just as good, masquerading as a piano ballad before Rodrigo unleashes on the titular blood-sucker with a series of venomous put-downs and crescendoing high notes.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2023
She married Michael Jackson, just as concerns about his behavior with children were crescendoing, and his efforts to remake his face were intensifying.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 13, 2023
With power rock chords, crescendoing piano, and operatic heights, "Bat Out of Hell" wasn't like anything anyone had heard before.
From Salon ● Jan. 22, 2022
Yet even the icy emptiness of Burial’s world possesses a strange kind of solace: Somewhere in the isolation waves of crescendoing synths descend, offering a cloak of hope and warmth.
From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2022
And the night behind them was filled with the crescendoing sound of pursuit....
From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
